At the end of the 19th century, the ideologies and grand narratives that had previously formed the foundation of Western society began to collapse, one by one. Defending these narratives became increasingly unpopular, so the only option was to stand by and watch as they crumbled. The first pillar to fall was religion, and especially its theories explaining human existence. During the 20th century, secular ideologies also began to lose all meaning, and by the end of the century, Western democracies were forced to find a way to fill the void. Due to this collapse, people began to lose their internal compass, and to behave increasingly irrationally, often overlooking critical reasoning while embracing a herd mentality.
Other cultural theories have since been used to fill the void left by the grand narratives, but they have become increasingly niche, compartmentalised, and extreme. According to the author, these new narratives all aim to give meaning to our lives, by declaring war on anyone whose opinion differs even slightly. We have therefore begun to use increasingly narrow and specific labels to identify everything, dividing the masses into smaller and smaller groups. All this has happened at a time when, thanks to technological progress, information travels incredibly quickly, spreading all over the globe in a matter of seconds, but this also means that people are now more easily manipulated.
The consequences of combining these two issues, identity compartmentalisation and technological progress, are clear to see: society forces us to interpret every cultural aspect through a specific lens, and this turns everything into a weapon and means that conversation is no longer an option. One example is the tendency to drag up statements made a decade or so ago, which were largely undisputed at the time, in order to condemn those who made them. So many social posts that were deemed socially acceptable, and even relatively common, ten years ago, are today used to label someone as sexist, homophobic, or racist. In today’s society, there is no room for forgiveness, and ‘cancel culture’ is becoming an increasingly dominant way of thinking.
